A 14-point fourth quarter by Houston led to the demise of No. 17 Kansas State football’s four-game winning streak on Saturday.
Leading by two scores at 19-10 going into the final period of play, K-State showcased the importance of playing clean football in the Big 12 conference with a 24-19 road loss.
“I love those guys,” K-State head coach Chris Klieman said to K-State Athletics. “Nobody is going to say that we don’t play hard. Our guys play our tail off. We just have to clean up some mistakes.
“We also know anything can happen in this league,” Klieman continued. “In 2022, we needed some help. Maybe [we got] that help. Who knows, but we have to focus on ourselves. I know we still have a good football team. We just have to get better.”
K-State dropped to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the Big 12 while Houston ascended to a mark of 4-5 and 3-3, winning back-to-back games for the first time this season.
The Wildcats are now fourth in the Big 12, slotting behind undefeated BYU, one-loss Iowa State and Colorado. The simple path for K-State to make it to Arlington is to win out, including at Iowa State, and have Colorado suffer one more loss.
The Cougars are led by head coach Willie Fritz who defeated K-State in Manhattan as the Tulane head man in 2022. His defense once again proved to cause headaches for K-State’s offense.
“We’re not playing good enough football fundamentally and with good enough technique,” Klieman said. “When you don’t, you can get exposed and not come out on top. When you don’t play good fundamental football, getting off blocks, sustaining blocks, all those little things, it’s going to come back to bite you … With the exception of BYU, that’s the best defense we’ve played bar none.”
Quarterback Avery Johnson completed 23-of-39 passes for 238 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions — both of which came in the fourth quarter. The second ultimately kept K-State from completing its fourth final-quarter comeback this season.
K-State has a week off to correct the mistakes before hosting Arizona State on Nov. 16.
